How to price your social media packages (without guessing)

Underpricing is the quiet killer of agency margins. Here’s how to build, tier and present social media packages clients say yes to — and that actually pay you.

Pricing is where most agencies lose money before they’ve done a single piece of work. You pluck a number that feels safe, the client agrees too quickly, and six months later you’re exhausted and barely breaking even on an account you “won.” The fix isn’t charging more for the sake of it — it’s pricing with a method, so your number holds up when the client pushes back and your margin survives the actual work.

Why most agencies underprice

Two reasons. First, you price the deliverables (“12 posts a month”) instead of the time and expertise behind them — strategy, writing, design, revisions, approvals, reporting. Second, fear: you assume a lower number closes faster. It doesn’t. A price that’s suspiciously cheap makes a serious client nervous, and it filters in the worst clients — the ones who haggle, churn, and treat you like a vendor.

The three ways to price — and when to use each

Avoid hourly for creative work — it caps your income at your calendar and penalises efficiency. Price the outcome and scope, not the clock.

How to build a package that pays

1. List everything you actually do — strategy, content calendar, copywriting, design, scheduling, community replies, reporting, a monthly call. People forget half of this when pricing.
2. Estimate real hours per month for one client, honestly, including revisions and admin.
3. Set your internal hourly cost (what your team time really costs) and your target margin — aim for a healthy markup, not survival.
4. Add a profit buffer for the messy stuff — scope creep, extra calls, the “quick favour.” It always happens.
5. Round to a clean monthly number and sense-check it against what the result is worth to the client, not just your costs.

Use three tiers, not one price

A single price is a yes/no. Three tiers turn the question into “which one?” — a far easier decision for the client. Anchor with a premium tier so the middle looks sensible, and make the middle tier the one you actually want to sell.

• Starter — a lean scope for smaller clients (fewer posts, no video, quarterly strategy).
• Growth — your core offer: full calendar, design, reporting, monthly strategy. Make this the obvious pick.
• Premium — everything plus extras (more video, ads management, priority turnaround) at a price that makes Growth feel like great value.

Present the price with confidence

How you deliver the number matters as much as the number. Lead with the outcome and the scope, then the price — never apologise for it or soften it with a nervous discount. State it once, clearly, and stop talking. And build price rises into the relationship from day one: a simple line in your agreement that rates are reviewed annually means raising prices later is a formality, not a fight.